Introduction

Learning to use Word doesn't have to be an agonizing, drawn-out process. Easy Microsoft Office Word 2003 distills the key skills for you and presents them in colorful , visual steps. This book assumes that you view Word as a tool for getting your work done ”no more, no less. You don't see learning a software program as an end in itself. Consequently, this book won't lead you into every nook and cranny of the program. You won't learn five ways of doing the same thing. You will, however, learn the fastest , most straightforward techniques, and you will certainly learn the shortcuts that are truly helpful.

Easy Microsoft Office Word 2003 is a book for beginners . It doesn't assume that you have ever used a word-processing program such as Word before or that you are familiar with Windows. You can use this book regardless of whether you're using Windows 98, Windows Me, or Windows XP.

The foundation for Easy Microsoft Office Word 2003 is many years "on the front lines" teaching Word classes to beginners. The explanations in this book have been refined in the classroom on thousands of people like you, who want to get up and running in Word without making it a lifetime project. Easy Microsoft Office Word 2003 does not merely provide stock explanations of how the program is supposed to work, but rather explains how it actually behaves from your viewpoint. If a particular nuance of Word behavior is confusing to most people in the classroom, it's explained here as well, on the assumption that it might be perplexing to you too.

Easy Microsoft Office Word 2003 is intended to be a both a tutorial and a reference. Feel free to flip to the exact task that you need to learn about at the moment. Of course, if you have the time, you can certainly work through the tasks sequentially, but it's not necessary to do so. You don't have to take time out from your day for "study sessions," but can instead apply the instructions in this book to your own documents, dipping into the various tasks as needed.

Word is an intuitive, powerful program, and learning to use it can (and should) be fun. Enjoy!